What is Drum and Bass? The Origin of DnB

What is Drum and Bass? The Origin of DnB

About the origin of Drum and Bass

You probably came here because you have heard your friends or people in the media talking about this music genre alot. But what is Drum and Bass?

Drum and Bass (or short: DnB) is an electronic music style. It was originally an offshoot of the UK breakbeat hardcore scene, came into existence when people mixed reggae basslines with sped-up hip hop breakbeats and influences from techno. First, raggamuffin dee-jay General Levy and others were therfore the stars of DnB, which was still called Jungle back then. Producers like Goldie and 4 Hero were not that fond of hip hop and reggae, and turned drum n bass in a more instrumental and less accessible direction, spawning sub-genres like tech-step and making the genre closer to techno.

Drum and Bass compared to Jungle

Drum n Bass is also known as Jungle, although possible racist overtones make this term somewhat controversial. However, by using the word as a description of a musical style, British Junglists may have in fact reclaimed a racist phrase from common usage in English (see Profanity).

By the mid-90’s, the term Jungle on the British scene referred to a rougher, darker style of DnB, influenced by the dance hall tradition and favoring ragga-style MC’s, distorted bass and repetitive sampled drum loops (rather than the melodic vocals, programmed drums and floaty synthesiser ambience common in so-called ‘intelligent’ Drum and Bass). Very popular examples of Jungle were produced for example by Shy FX or Aphrodite. Goldie, Roni Size and Aphex Twin (a versatile musician who experimented alot) are probably Drum and Bass rather than Jungle. Taken all together you can say Jungle is simpler, sweatier, dirtier and (regarding paying audience) more “working-class” than Drum and Bass.

I hope this helped to answer what is drum and bass! If you think I forgot anything important feel free to leave a comment below and I will add it to this article. Make sure to check out the tracks below to get an idea on what drum and bass sounds like! If you wish to learn more about the history of DnB, make sure to read through this article on wikipedia!

Some good Drum and Bass tracks

Original Nuttah by Shy FX (1995)

And here is modern Drum n Bass track: Netsky – Memory Lane (2010)

As always, make sure you have subscribed to our YouTube channel, there is plenty of good DnB on there!